All Learning Content
NAO on Commercial & Contract Management – Manage Your Own Obligations
Aug 7, 2017
At the end of last year, the UK’s National Audit Office issued a very useful document titled “Commercial and contract management: insights and emerging best practice”. We did provide an initial overview of it here, and now we are into a more detailed review of its content and findings. For...
Procuring Innovation in the Back Office
Aug 7, 2017
We’ve been exploring what it means for the government back office to become a Center of Innovation—including how that might look for both financial and people management. In this post, let’s consider opportunities for procurement.
For the procurement function, becoming a Center of Innovation...
How GSA Plans to Ease the Transition to EIS
Aug 7, 2017
The General Services Administration (GSA) has awarded the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions telecommunications contract to 10 vendors, giving agencies years to move from the current Networx contract. In an effort to avoid issues similar to the transition from FTS 2001 to Networx, GSA is working...
Unequal Evaluation: Incumbent Not Credited For Retaining Its Own Employees
Aug 7, 2017
In its evaluation of proposals, a procuring agency gave a challenger a strength for proposing to recruit incumbent employees but didn’t give the incumbent contractor a strength–even though the incumbent contractor proposed to retain the very same people.
Unsurprisingly, the GAO found that the...
The Big Squeeze in Public Procurement
Aug 4, 2017
As budgets continue to shrink, how can professionals working in public procurement do more with less?
This article was first published on Procurious.
We live in a world of apparent contradictions. The amount of money being spent by global governments is rising year on year. And yet, in the...
SmallGovCon Week In Review: July 31-August 4, 2017
Aug 4, 2017
Coming off their World Series win last year, my Chicago Cubs are back atop the National League Central division in hopes of repeating as champions. While we still have few months of the regular season left, I’m hoping for a repeat of October 4, 1908, when a whopping 6,210 fans watched the...
Meet the New Face of Federal IT Contractors
Aug 4, 2017
A few weeks ago I wrote about the Department of Homeland Security’s Flexible Agile Support for the Homeland procurement—a $1.5 billion IDIQ for agile software development services. DHS attracted about 100 vendors to participate in a “tech demo,” where each came in to work on an actual...
An Unsolicited Proposal for a Microconsulting Services Platform
Aug 3, 2017
Skylight, a HUBZone company made up of former Presidential Innovation Fellows and 18F staffers whose mission is to make government work in a digital world, announced an unsolicited proposal to construct a “microconsulting” services marketplace platform for the entire federal government. In an...
What Can Your City Learn From Philadelphia’s Improvements?
Aug 3, 2017
Philadelphia officials in the procurement department knew they had an aging, outdated system that made it difficult for vendors to compete for city work, which made it difficult for the city to get the best available quality and prices. So they got to work creating and installing upgrades to nearly...
Why BPOs Are a Good Business Model for Public Sector Buying
Aug 3, 2017
Public Technology.net has run a very good interview with public buying organisation (PBO) ESPO about the important role that organisations like this play in the government IT landscape. It explains how these organisations come about and how exactly they operate. How they are run like a business but...
Fast Tracking Tech Acquisitions
Aug 3, 2017
When the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) wanted to take a more agile approach to technology, they found help inside the government from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). Using its Joint Venture Partnership program authority, USCIS was able to execute an...
DeVos Cancels Multibillion Tech Procurement
Aug 3, 2017
Facing a potential bipartisan revolt on Capitol Hill, the Trump administration canceled a multibillion solicitation for a consolidated student loan servicing solution. The Department of Education released a statement saying the long-planned finance platform will be replaced by a new project before...
